Turkey lumbered with the jihadists

In the eyes of the US, UK and France, the jihadists in Syria are split into two: the dangerous, bad jihadists and the “useful jihadists.” The dangerous ones like Al-Qaeda derivatives and Islamic State are inclined to spread transnationally and stage terrorist actions in Western cities. The useful ones, conversely, are those who unlike the former are not global jihadists and restrict their actions to the war they are waging against the Damascus regime. In a sense, the ones who know their place.

Being a superpower like the US, they believe they can indulgence in such follies as not drawing the lesson from errors and wising up. After all, they have the advantage of “correcting” through the use of force the results caused by their mistaken use of force.

They now appear to have forgotten that the massive military support channelled through the CIA to the holy warriors opposing first the Soviet-backed regime and the subsequent outright Soviet occupation in Afghanistan at the time of the Cold War finally turned and became the main trigger of the global phenomenon of jihad that struck their own cities on 11 September 2001.

Repeating similar errors, they have caused the war to drag on thanks to the support they have given to the useful jihadists in Syria.

They have lost this long war of seven years’ duration, to boot. Hence, their current goal is not to win the war, but to ensure that the Damascus regime cannot govern Syria and to tire out, exhaust and halt the forces supporting this regime.

Regardless of whether they succeed, it is by now an established fact that the global or local jihadist groups steeped in radical Islamist ideology no longer possess and the lack the capacity to govern and pose any kind of alternative to the regime.

To top this, they have been beaten. Developments on the ground proclaim that these defeats will continue. So, these tens of thousands of jihadists and the hundreds of thousands in their entourage including their families and mass bases, if any, need a patron who will look out for them.

The sought-after patron appears to have been found. Our country, Turkey.

Turkey, in any case the host of four million Syrian refugees, now finds itself faced with the bold task of accommodating the jihadists who have fled in defeat from the Afrin and al-Bab (Euphrates Shield) areas and bringing public order to prevail over them. For example, jihadist members of Saudi-backed Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam) who made an agreement to leave the Damascus suburb of Douma following the Syrian army’s attack but were nevertheless unable to find room in Idlib have moved along with their light arms and families to Jarabulus within the Euphrates Shield theatre.

More are on the way.

The Afrin and Euphrates Shield areas are “jihadist reservations.” With prevailing conditions leaving no other alternative, mini Sharia regimes are being set up hereabouts under Turkey’s surveillance and supervision.

Just look, a female CNNTürk reporter was unable to move around without a headscarf in the “Afrin reservation” she had gone to report from.

It is apparent that one of the Damascus regime’s subsequent targets will be the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp dominated by Islamic State. Another likely target is the town of al-Rastan controlled by Free Syrian Army affiliated jihadists in the countryside between Homs and Hama. These two areas are also besieged by the regime.

In Idlib, conversely, the Damascus regime, its Iranian allies and the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah attacked the Aleppo-Hama line from west to east in the first weeks of the year, seizing large areas and hemming in the jihadists.

Tension over sharing space has escalated among the squeezed jihadists leading to internal conflict. In Idlib, Russia is controlling Iran, which it dislikes acting independently, by means of four observation stations Turkey has set up to the east of the Aleppo-Hama motorway under the agreement reached within the “Astana Process.” The observation stations provide Ankara with the opportunity to defend itself in the future against the Damascus regime, its enemy that it is forced to cohabit with.

This most certainly comes at a price.

The “Syrian Liberation Front” (JTS), created from the combining with Ankara’s encouragement and efforts of the jihadist Nour al-Din al-Zenki and Ahrar al-Sham groups, is combatting the Al-Qaeda extension Al-Nusra (under its new name of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – HTS) in Idlib. With the Russians watching the two jihadists groups demolishing one another, it is currently keeping its other allies away from the scene of the action.

There is still time until the major assault on Idlib but, when it starts, Turkey’s jihadist problem will get even more severe.

 http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/koseyazisi/959305/Cihatcilar_da_Turkiye_ye_havale.html